Stocks find no late bounce

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS.MW) -- Tech stocks failed to recover from morning sickness during Wednesday's extended session but the evening damage was minimal.

The tech-laden Nasdaq-100 After Hours Indicator, a gauge of the post-close activity of the index's leading stocks, moved fractionally lower.

Earlier, the Nasdaq closed down 33 at 1,314 while the Dow finished the day off 130 to 8,694. See Market Snapshot.

Shares of Hewlett-Packard
HPQ, -1.32%
managed to eke out a regular-session gain, up 6 cents to close at $14.27, before stagnating after the close. The computer and printer giant posted an in-line third-quarter profit. Revenue however, came in a bit shy of Wall Street's expectations. See full story.

Elsewhere, Yahoo
YHOO
has been relatively quiet in the extended session of late, but it did garner plenty of attention Tuesday evening, up about 3 percent on Island-topping volume.

Shares of the Internet portal suffered from a 15 percent haymaker in the early session, hitting a sub-$10 level that marks Yahoo's first stint in single digits since October 2001.

In the networking sector, Nortel
NT
provided an early drag on stocks after the company said it would lay off another 16 percent of its work force and warned of disappointing third-quarter results. In the third market, Nortel shares held even ground.

Rivals Cisco
CSCO, -1.64%
and Lucent
LU
also meandered in flat terrain after the bell.

Semiconductor stocks also caught extended-session focus. In the morning session, analyst Hans Mosesmann at Prudential cut fourth-quarter estimates for chipmakers Intel
INTC, -0.66%
and Advanced Micro Devices
AMD, -0.35%
saying that the Taiwanese supply chain in PCs suggest that seasonal growth patterns of more than 10 percent will not be seen.

Shares of both companies slipped to a negative close before adding a few cents late. Intel was runner up on Island ECN most-actives.

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